In this Transylvania Lecture, our invitee discusses the reasons behind the growing division in politics and social norms. This is closely related to the changing definitions of Left and Right wing, and the surprising appearance of authoritarian ideas on both sides. She believes that we should pay attention to conspiracy theories, a problem mainly on the right, and the negative attitude and identity-focused politics on the left, which can lead to bullying.

Zoe Strimpel’s main point is that she is confused by the changes in both left and right, and the disappearance – as they move towards identity politics on the left and populism and conspiracy on the right – of decency and a liberal middle ground. She thinks that we need to return to that moderate center, which supports rationality, science, basic women's rights like abortion and contraception, and resists conspiracy (often anti-Semitic), and harmful distortions of reality.

Zoe Strimpel is a writer, broadcaster and historian of gender in modern Britain. She is a columnist for the Telegraph and the Jewish Chronicle, and writes regularly for the Spectator and Unherd. She is proudly globe-trotting and rootless: born in London, she grew up in America, finished high school in Hampshire, UK, and studied English at Cambridge, followed much later by an Mphil in Gender Studies at Cambridge and a PhD in modern British history at Sussex. She is the author of three books about gender and dating.

Moderator: Dora Mircea-Radu, brand and creative communications strategist, entrepreneur who collaborates with clients such as software companies, NGOs that focus on youth education, health and well-being, organisations that generate corporate and community events. She is a graduate of the Sociology and Social Work Faculty, Babeș-Bolyai University, where she received a BA (Hons) and MA in Sociology. She has worked for ten years as a TV and newspaper journalist.

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